Remembering Them
by Nature9000
Summary: A terrible tragedy rips PJ from his carefree sense of reality and for several years he struggles with their memory, and the thought of showing Charlie the video diary left behind. Can he show her what their family was like and cope together?


Remembering Them

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N: So I saw this show, it kind of grew on me, but there was this nagging feeling that it gave me. The video diaries and the theme song actually gave me a slightly sad feeling once and it inspired this story. This should have been out as a sort of "tribute" to my mother and older brother back in June, but it just wasn't finished at the time. So enjoy this oneshot.

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><p>-IT BEGINS-<p>

Seventeen year old PJ Duncan was watching the news with an expression full of fear and horror. He took his work hat from his head and placed it onto his lap as the bile started to shoot up from his stomach. He put his hand to his mouth and choked up, trying hard to swallow the terror threatening to spew from his lips. Tears stung his eyes as he looked to his two year old baby sister playing with her toys and giggling happily. How? How could she be so happy? He wanted to yell at her, to tell her to stop laughing, but she wouldn't understand why he would be mad at her. He wasn't mad at her, though. Charlie looked at him and immediately he saw the concern and confusion flash in her eyes. Did she want to know why he was crying?

He clenched his chest and returned his gaze to the burning plane on the screen and the bodies underneath the blanket on the stretchers that the paramedics were running around with. His throat tightened and his body shook. He was supposed to have been there, he should have been with them. _"There were no survivors. It was a piloting error."_ A pilot error, they said? That's what they always said about a plane crash. He trembled harder as his eyes turned to Teddy's laptop on the end table, he had been watching some of the videos she shot for Charlie. He choked out a sob and quickly shut the laptop, he couldn't bear to watch them any longer.

It had been a day since the wreckage, but he still couldn't fathom and was watching the news report over and over again, hoping and praying it was another plane. He even denied it in his mind when the police called him up. Charlie had a doctor's appointment the family had forgotten about and his manager at work told him a coworker got food poisoning and needed him to take over, the family had already paid for the family vacation they were going on, so they opted to go anyway, leaving PJ and Charlie behind, despite the fact that the vacation would be an early eighteenth birthday present for PJ, who was turning eighteen in a month.

"Mom, dad…Teddy…Gabe…" He buried his head in his hands and wept, his bitter tears stung his cheeks as he rocked his body back and forth. His heart slammed his chest, threatening his ribcage. Why? _Why_ had he been spared? Why were they all gone? For what reason did he live? He was already failing at his own personal life, he had a dead end job at a shady chicken restaurant and was afraid he wouldn't be _anything_ when he grew up. "Why? Why me?" Teddy was smart, she made excellent grades in school and might have gone into journalism, or maybe even a music teacher. Hell, Gabe was a brilliant kid, very cunning and smart, it was _clear_ he had a great future ahead of him. Why did they have to go? Why did he have to live? Why couldn't he be the one on that plane, why couldn't they have stayed home? He stomped his feet on the ground and whined as he shook his head and prayed for a change, prayed for _something_ different, only to find that change may never come to fruition.

He was brought back to reality when he felt Charlie place her small hand upon his knee. He lifted his head up and met her sad eyes. "PJ sad?" Oh god, she would never know them. She would never understand why her family wouldn't ever come home. What was he supposed to say to her? He knew someone needed to say something, someone had to care for her. His heart lifted as Charlie climbed into his lap and hugged him, possibly trying to comfort his dying soul. Then as he felt her warmth, he began to realize, maybe _this_ was why he survived. Maybe he survived to take care of Charlie.

As he held her, weeping silently for several minutes, his thoughts continued to trail to how he was to tell Charlie about the family. She was too young to understand death, it just wasn't fair! She shouldn't have to learn about this so soon! If he simply told her the family left and wouldn't come back, she might think they abandoned them. He lifted his head up and realized that she had fallen asleep. He wiped his eyes and carefully set her on the couch cushion, she didn't wake. He slowly rose to his feet, fearing that he would fall the second he got up, but he knew he couldn't sit around forever. His eyes locked onto the screen once more and he started to feel his legs caving in.

The door swung open and his head snapped over in time to see Skylar running into the house. What was she doing? Wasn't she supposed to be in New York? Tears stained her cheeks as she threw her arms around him. "PJ I'm so sorry! I flew in as soon as I heard!" He trembled once more and carefully moved his arms around her. It was too much to process, too difficult to understand. He didn't care when or how she got there, he was just happy that she was there.

"Y-You flew?" His voice cracked and Skylar met his terrified eyes. She hugged him closer. He knew she was there in front of him, she didn't die on a plane, she had taken a different plane obviously. To him, though, that plane on the screen was the only thing. It had taken everything he'd cared about, everything he loved. It was the symbol of true death. So why wasn't Skylar gone? He needed time to process. "W-What am I going to tell Charlie?"

"It's okay PJ, just breathe. Breathe."

"I can't, Skylar. I just lost my entire family!"

"I know…" She hugged him again as his tears continued to stain his face. Nothing could ever prepare him emotionally for this moment. How could he handle this? Right now, Skylar was the only person he had left in this world besides his little sister. "You'll make it through this, you will. You have to, for your sister." He moved his eyes to the coffee table, the letter on there was an acceptance letter from Colorado State University. He was going to go to college in the criminal justice field. He was going to tell his family about it when they returned from the trip. Fresh tears left his eyes and he slowly fell back onto the couch. Skylar sat next to him and put her arm around him as he continued to weep.

"I was supposed…They were supposed to be back today or tomorrow, I was going to tell them about the college…Their plane was in a storm, no one survived. It's not fair." In the corner of his eyes, he saw his innocent little sister watching him closely. She turned her head to the screen and stared at it with silence, not fully understanding. It was a memory that would never leave him.

Twelve years passed by, thirty year old PJ Duncan lived in a three bedroom house with his nine months pregnant wife and fourteen year old sister. They'd since moved from his old home, the memories were far too much for him to take. As years passed, he never once looked back, attempting to block everything out. Skylar knew this wasn't good, especially for Charlie, but she never said anything.

He and Skylar had pulled all their assets together when he was younger, and with some help from her parents and a few loans that he'd finally paid off, he managed to continue on to college. Now he worked as a detective in the homicide division of the police department. Skylar as a school nurse at the local junior high where Charlotte "Charlie" Duncan went to school. Since she started junior high, she dropped the cutesy "Charlie" from her name and looked a lot like her older sister, except blonde like her mother. She'd always wanted to know about her parents and siblings, but whenever she brought them up, PJ refused to talk about them, stating that under that roof, he just didn't want to bring them up. So instead, she used her sister in law to her advantage and had been asking Skylar questions about her family during lunch hours at school, but it never quite felt complete to her. It felt as though there were several things she was missing.

PJ kept his sister's laptop though, he never really used it and it was surely collecting dust after all these years. It was tucked away in a box beneath his bed, which he was currently laying upon with Skylar cuddling up next to his chest. He still had a full head of hair and a mustache, one which Skylar loved and always said tickled her lips whenever he kissed her. She still retained her youthful appearance and demeanor, wasn't quite as lacking in the knowledge department as she used to be, college cleared that up, but she did have her moments of forgetfulness and confusion, just like Amy Duncan had been.

"You know I'm right, Peter…" He grimaced and peered towards the window on the right of the room. She only used his full name when she was being deadly serious, it was a way that he knew she meant business and he'd better listen to him. "I've kept myself quiet all these years regarding your little sister, but she _deserves_ to know more about her family. I know you're still coping, I know you miss them, but what about her? We all hurt. Teddy was one of my closest friends…"

He moved his eyes down as he felt her rubbing her hand against his chest. "I know…" He didn't want to admit she was right, but he was truly _scared_ of looking back. He didn't want to appear weak, he didn't want to cry.

"I'm not asking you to do this for yourself, not asking you to do this for me, but…do it for your baby sister. Do it for your family. Don't you think their memory should be preserved? Honored? _Remembered_? Don't you see how much she struggles just to understand? All she knows about them is 'they're dead'. She doesn't know the exact details, doesn't know very much about them, just that they're never going to come back. She knows it. I know it. You need to realize it…"

"You're saying I don't know-" Skylar let out a grunt and slowly sat up. PJ rose with her and looked into her eyes.

"I'm saying you, somewhere within you, you're still waiting for them to get off that plane and walk through those doors. You're waiting for Teddy to say something you can make fun of, for Gabe to insult someone, for your dad to say something stupid and your mom to complain about being tired out from all the travels…" Her words struck him like a ton of bricks, crushing him and tearing at his heart. He placed his hand to his stomach and stared at the footboard of the bed, trying to push down the guilt and sadness rising in him. "You need to understand that it's never going to happen. Do you know that every day during lunch and after school, Charlie comes into my office and asks me about them?"

"What?" He looked up as a pang shot through his heart, it was as if someone just stabbed a knife into him and twisted it. "She never asked me…"

"She _did_ PJ, for _so many years_ she asked you, but you always refused to talk about them!" Skylar threw her hands into the air and slowly got out of the bed and faced him. "She's almost fifteen, the age your sister was when she started those video diaries. She wants so badly to be able to talk to you, to tell you about her life, but she's scared you don't want to talk to her. You probably don't even realize she has a crush on a kid in her school."

"Since when!" He quickly leaned forward as his wife put her hands to her hips. She raised an eyebrow and he slowly leaned back. He really was like his father in so many ways, including that protective streak that he had when it came to his sister and dating.

"Peter…" He frowned as she put her hands to his cheek and leaned close, gazing into his eyes. "I love you, you _know_ I love you. Charlie loves you. You and I are about to have our first baby together, and we're going to be a family just as wonderful and great as your family was, but in order to do that…you _need _to be with us." His heart sank as he continued to search her eyes. So filled with love and concern, he knew she wanted him to be happy again. "It's been twelve, almost thirteen years, and you still think they're going to come back. You've been living in the past…just talk to Charlie, she deserves to know about them. You're going to lose your little sister too, if you're not careful."

"I…"

"Just think about it." She stood erect and walked to the door, stopping to glance back momentarily. "If we died after our daughter was born, wouldn't you want her to know about who we were? Wouldn't you want Charlie to be able to tell our child what we were like? Would you want her to go through years of not knowing anything about her parents?" His throat tightened as he watched Skylar walk out of the bedroom and close the door.

His body trembled slightly as he moved his eyes to the family photo that rested on the wall next to the closet door. His lips curled up as he studied their positioning on the stairs, with Charlie in the middle on her mother and father's lap and her three siblings surrounding them on the bottom, forming a full circle. He moved his eyes to the floor and felt his eyes ache with the tears threatening them.

_"They're not coming back…"_

_ "Wouldn't you want to honor their memory?"_

He laid back on the bed and put his large hand onto his face, sighing loudly. His stomach growled with hunger and he ignored it, he had way too much to think about besides hunger. Dinner would likely be done soon, anyway. _"Shouldn't their memory be preserved?"_ Thoughts of his family watching him, disapproving of his actions, weighed heavily upon his mournful heart. Maybe Skylar was right. No, he knew she was right. Maybe his father was correct when he used to tell him that no matter what, the woman was always somehow correct. Did Skylar know what was best for Charlie, more so than he knew? Maybe it was indeed time to realize that they were gone, that he needed to shape up or he really would lose Charlie too.

An hour later, after a quiet dinner with Skylar and PJ discussing work and Charlie having helped Skylar finish cleaning up the dishes, she was about to head back to her room and get her homework done. PJ leaned against the kitchen doorway and peered out onto the coffee table in front of their vanilla sofa. He closed his eyes and sighed, tearing his eyes away from that dusty computer. "Charlie-"

"Charlotte," she corrected in a quick voice. PJ chuckled as Charlie walked over to him and smiled. Skylar peered over from the sink and set a plate in the dish tray. "What is it?"

"I'd like…I have something to tell you." Charlie raised her eyebrow as he started walking to the couch. She moved towards him and Skylar followed after.

"What is it? Can it wait till I finish my homework?"

"No…it can't wait any longer." Charlie sat down on the left couch cushion while PJ sat on the middle and Skylar took a seat on the right side. Charlie's brow furrowed as she eyed the laptop in front of them, she had never seen it before.

"What's this, and what's so important that I can't finish my homework? I have to get it done by tomorrow."

"I think it can wait just a bit longer…Charli-Charlotte, this is your sister's laptop." Charlie gasped and her eyes widened as she watched PJ carefully open the computer. His hands trembled as Skylar carefully placed her hand in his, giving him a squeeze for comfort.

"This was _her_ computer?" She bit her lip and PJ slowly nodded his head. "But you…you never talk about them…why the change?" He saw the concern in her eyes and remembered the vivid memory of her watching that news report as a baby, never quite understanding it but gazing so tremendously at it.

"I realize that I need to be here for you. We're a family and you deserve to know who our mom, dad, and siblings were before…"

"Before the plane crash?" He raised an eyebrow as she slowly looked to the computer. "Skylar told me they died in a plane crash, I was just two years old, right?"

"Y-Yes. I could sit here and tell you everything you could ever want to know about them, but…I thought I'd let your sister do that." She was dumbfounded, how on earth could Teddy possibly tell her anything? She was _dead_.

"I don't understand…"

"When you were just a few months old, Teddy started up a video diary, commemorating the lives of you and the family. I haven't looked at these things in almost thirteen years, so I thought maybe…maybe we should all watch them together and talk."

"Okay…" Charlie's eyes brightened a bit as PJ leaned forward and moved his fingers to the folder containing all of Teddy's video diaries. He remembered when he was younger, Teddy never wanted him to touch this computer, and now he was certain she would be smacking him away from it. Though, maybe she wanted him to do this, in the spiritual sense. These videos were intended for Charlie, after all. His hand trembled as he clicked the first video. Teddy's face popped up in full screen, scaring him as though he'd just seen a ghost. Charlie looked to him for a minute, then back to the screen with awe. "She's very pretty."

"She was your age then, when she started this." His heart ached as he started to click the play button. He felt Skylar rest her head upon his shoulder and looked to her, seeing the tears in her eyes. Charlie gazed at the video with a quiet expression, taking in everything as she saw herself as a nine month old baby. She smiled and a tear came to her own eyes.

_"This is your big sister Teddy, and I'm making this video diary to help you survive our 'special' family."_ PJ chuckled and Charlie raised an eyebrow as she watched herself shove a plateful of bananas into her face and onto her shirt. Amy Duncan walked up to the high chair and slowly sat down, glaring at the camera. Her hair was a mess and she was exhausted. _"And there's mom, looking lovelier than ever this morning."_

_ "Not in the mood."_ Charlie laughed lightly as she watched her mother attempting to get her to eat sweet peas and putting the baby food into her own mouth, following very promptly by spitting them out with disgust. The camera zoomed over to a younger PJ, typing on the laptop as Teddy came into view.

_"Very smart, always make Mommy try it first! And here's your older brother, PJ doing today's homework at the last minute as usual."_

_ "This isn't today's homework, it's yesterday's homework."_

_ "There's a chance you two will be in high school together." _ PJ closed his eyes and chuckled as Skylar and Charlie smiled at him. For Charlie, it seemed so hard to imagine him so dense, as he was always so serious now. Then again, this was a happier time

"I wasn't that stupid."

"Are you _sure_ about that, PJ?" Charlie poked him in the side and he playfully swatted her hand away. He didn't think he could actually smile while watching these videos, but they brought back _so__many_ memories. They went back to the screen and saw Bob Duncan waving at the camera.

_"Here's dad, working on another day's work, he kills bugs for a living."_

_ "Hey come on, we've been through this, I don't kill bugs. I'm a 'pest control specialist'."_

"That's the same thing, by the way, Charlie."

"I thought it was." She sniffed and rested her head on her brother's shoulder, she was so happy that he was finally giving her this opportunity. "PJ, this means so much to me…"

"I know it does, I'm sorry I never showed you these earlier. Now keep watching." Charlie wiped her eye and nodded as she watched Gabe walking down some stairs.

_"Charlie, that was your younger older brother Gabe." _Gabe didn't appear too thrilled about Charlie, but PJ was able to let her know that she grew on him obviously. As they went on to the rest of the video diary for that day, Teddy was telling about her first kiss with Spencer. PJ had his arms on the back of the sofa, stretched out while Skylar still rested her head on his shoulder and Charlie leaned forward intensely as though watching a movie. _"So the good news? There is no good news." Teddy's phone buzzed and she quickly jumped for joy. "Oh wait, I just got a text from Spencer! He wants me to hang out tomorrow night, at his house!" She jumped around a couple times, then stopped momentarily. "Oh, I have to go wash your puke out of my jacket!"_ Charlie closed her eyes and cleared her throat, embarrassed by the statement, but who could blame her for what she did as a baby? She had a feeling, though, that there was a lot more to her baby antics than she thought._ Teddy stopped and looked back to the camera. "Oh and one more thing. When you're my age and you meet a cute boy…do not, under _any_ circumstances ever, _ever_ bring him home. Cause if you do, well…Good luck Charlie."_

Charlie smacked her lips and looked over at PJ who had his eyes closed and a broad smirk upon his face. "Do you think that still counts?" He opened his eyes and playfully rubbed her head.

"Oh yes. It still counts. Skylar told me about that boy at school you like, I think I should meet him."

"Uh oh…" She laughed and clicked on the next video. They spent a good couple of hours fishing through the videos and watching everything they could, laughing and remembering the old times, it was everything Charlie could ever want to know about her family. It was a sad memory when they got to the video with Teddy talking about Skylar moving to New York and PJ chasing after her. When they reached the final few, Charlie hugged PJ tightly and smiled at him. "So, Skylar came back."

"Obviously." PJ looked over and Skylar quickly kissed his lips. "I don't know what I would have done if she wasn't here for us when that plane crashed…" Charlie nodded and Skylar gently wiped her eyes again. "I'm sorry for never talking about them, I don't know what was wrong with me…"

"I think I know, a part of you just never accepted that they were really gone."

"Yeah…that sounds about right…" He hugged his little sister back and looked to the computer background, it was of the entire family together. He smiled briskly as Charlie took the laptop into her hands. "Do you want to keep that laptop for yourself?"

"Can I?"

"We'll back up all the videos and you can watch them whenever, I know we can burn them onto DVDs, so you'll always have them even if something happens to that computer." He watched Charlie's eyes brighten and his heart lifted up in his chest, it was the happiest he'd seen her in so long. Surely the Duncan family was smiling down upon them. He didn't know it would be this easy to talk about them, this easy to remember them, but now that he was, he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He looked to Skylar and softly kissed her forehead. "Thank you."

She smiled knowingly and rolled her head to the side, smirking into his eyes. "For what?"

"Helping me realize I needed to preserve their memory, something like that."

"Well, I'm just glad you did." She kissed his jaw and he moved his eyes over to Charlie. She was typing on the computer and watching one of the videos again, tears were in her eyes and her chin rested upon her hand. She would probably end up watching these for a long time. PJ grunted and leaned over, rubbing her back gently. She looked over at him and sniffed.

"Hey, why don't you go finish your homework, Skylar and I will start putting those videos on CDs for you."

"Okay PJ, thanks…and, I had a thought…" He lifted his eyebrows as Charlie slowly stood up and stretched her arms. She looked to Skylar, then back to PJ. "Well, seeing what my older sister did, I kind of thought maybe…I could do the same for my niece, and create a video diary for her." PJ smiled and Skylar turned her head towards him.

"I think that would be a great idea, PJ." He closed his eyes and nodded, no need to think about that. It would be a great way to honor his sister's memory while also creating a home movie bit of wisdom for his daughter.

"Yeah, it's a good idea, I say go for it." Charlie jumped happily and quickly hugged his neck. He laughed and watched with pride as she ran towards her bedroom to finish her homework. Skylar squeezed his hand gently and looked into his eyes.

"I'm proud of you, PJ. You came through, just remember, it's _okay_ to miss them, but don't try to avoid them. You know?"

"I know. Why it took thirteen years to see that, I'll never know…" Maybe now, he could really begin healing. He knew that's what Skylar and Charlie needed him to do, so that he could connect with Charlie. So, he would do that for them, anything for the family he had _now_. No more living in the past and wishing for what would never be.

Four months later, Charlie was ready for her first video diary log. She had a perfect digital camera that she bought with her own money and was really excited to be doing this, she decided actually to catch PJ and Skylar off guard, to make everything look _natural_ and not planned, much like Teddy's videos had been done. She loved going through those and watching them, over and over again. She cried every single time, sometimes she just wept at never getting a chance to really know or remember them, but since she had those videos, she would never _forget_ them. All that Teddy said and taught her, she'd remember forever, cherishing them within her heart. The tales of Gabe's antics, PJ's success, or _failures_ for that matter, in school, they always made her smile and laugh. Just seeing her brother then and now, it was a big change, but a little of that fun loving PJ was beginning to come out in recent days.

She burst into the kitchen as Skylar fed her little daughter, baby Rebecca "Teddy" Duncan. Skylar looked up at her with a quiet smile and eyes wide, she wasn't ready! Her hair was a mess and she had baby food on her shirt, and to top it off, she was exhausted from having no sleep! "Hey baby Teddy, look at you! You're so cute!" The baby giggled as Skylar froze in front of the camera, trying to adjust to the fact that she looked horrible. "You were named after your Aunt, her name was Rebecca, but everyone called her Teddy. She did a video diary for me, so I thought I'd do one for you." She turned the camera to Skylar and grinned as the woman shot her a quick glare. "This is your mom, Skylar. She and your dad nearly ended up _not_ together, but they're together, obviously."

"You had to do this when I wasn't properly clean and _not_ yawning every five minutes?"

"It had to be natural."

"Great…" Skylar's head fell onto the table and she moaned softly as she began to drift to sleep. Charlie laughed and shook her head.

"As you can see, Teddy, you've made mommy very tired. It was a long time at the delivery room, but it was worth it. Let's go see your dad!" She rushed into the living room where PJ was starting towards the door, wearing formalwear. He stopped and waved slightly at the camera, chuckling lightly.

"Hey Teddy, I'm going to work."

"Your dad's a Detective for the Denver Police Department. He works the homicide division and can be very strict. He knows a thing or two about a crime scene, so if you ever bring a boy home that he doesn't like, well…good luck with that." PJ chuckled and checked his watch, he was late. Skylar came into the living room, hissed at the camera, and walked up to PJ, giving him a kiss goodbye and wishing him luck at work. "Aw, your mommy and daddy still love each other after thirteen years, that really says something about them." Skylar turned around as PJ left the house.

"Charlie, you know you're like my best friend and all, but please warn me before you're going to shoot a video diary." Charlie clicked her tongue and watched as Skylar walked off, practically falling over from exhaustion.

After a few seconds of showing the house, she sat down on the couch and sat the camera in front of her, waving slightly. "I'm your Aunt Charlotte, but they call me Charlie. They did that when I was a baby and I _don't_ like to be called Charlie anymore. Let's talk about your namesake. Your Aunt Teddy and Uncle Gabe, along with your grandparents, they were very fun. I…" Her eyes drooped momentarily, then shot back up at the camera. "They passed away when I was just two years old, going on my third birthday. I never really got a chance to know them, but your Aunt's video diary really helped me out. I hope you won't ever have to go through that same stuff, I doubt you will, so I wouldn't worry about it. They had a plane crash while returning home from vacation, nobody made it out alive…PJ was hit hard. Your mom came all the way from New York for him when it happened, but he became _very_ serious after that. Don't worry though, he's starting to come out of his shell a little after all this time. Just remember, if you ever have any questions about them, we'll always be here for you."

Charlie wiped her eyes and looked at the door for a brief second, she smiled brightly and returned her gaze to the camera, pointing at it momentarily. "You're going to see this family is a fun and _close_ family, we'll do anything and everything to stay together and try to make someone smile, and that includes acting like crazy idiots sometimes, so if you ever try to hide anything from us, what do you think will happen? Well..." She lifted her eyebrows and smirked as she delivered her sister's famous ending. "Good luck, Teddy."

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><p>I hope you enjoyed it, the emotions and everything. I wanted to give it a nice, somewhat happysweet touch at the ending where Charlie pays her older sister tribute, as you can see. Also, I thought Skylar should be the one to sort of get PJ to realize he needs to do something about this rut he's in, she seems to be very much like a good wife, I thought she would be. I feel like everything's perfect, maybe a few things could have been done differently, but who knows. Let me know what you thought of this. Maybe a little more than just "good job." Let me hear your thoughts ^_^.


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